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Comment by semiquaver

1 year ago

Just curious, are you certain it was this model or just “a large CRT?”

This model retailed for $40,000 in the US (100K adjusted for inflation) and only a small number (reportedly in the low double digits) were ever sold.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/1990/03/06/to-get-the-big-pic...

As the video mentions this model is so incredibly rare that previously there were only two known photos of retail units in the wild - and one of those photos was of the very unit that the guy in this story eventually managed to acquire.

The other photo is a mystery, nobody knows who took it or whether that unit is still intact.

  • It was also incredibly expensive - most people rich enough to buy it wouldn’t typically post their living room online in the early 90ies

  • And yet, common enough that a random guy in the forum claimed to have had several in his store and gave them a copy of the service manual. And that was in the same city as the collector in the video. A decent amount of these were probably sold, and almost certainly all disposed of as soon as they became obsoleted by plasmas.

Wow, goes to show how people are gullible to their "memories", never stopping to question them. This could explain the "communism was better" ramblings you get from old farts quite well...

I... just don't get it. What I remember from my young is not that much but it all definitely happened and does not need any artistic license.

  • It's a great understatement to say that the end of the Eastern Bloc could have been handled a whole lot better, especially from the perspective of people who would have been established or even happy with their lives under Communism: age 40+, educated, successful career at the Trabbi factory, just got to the top of the waiting list for an apartment, etc.

    * This comment is not an endorsement of totalitarian governments